well, it's less about what you want to be and more about what you actually are, right? and, we're a product of the forces that shaped our history. rome is where we get our laws, our system of social organization and most of our actual culture, periodically interwoven over fragments of time; to an extent, that's the definition of "multiculturalism" in the broader west, just tolerance towards different stages and expressions of historical roman civilizations. it's inescapable.
so, i speak in terms of these broad civilizational struggles, but please understand that i do so solely observationally. like, i'm not picking a side, here. there's certain components of certain civilizations that i don't like, but i'm ultimately on the side of cultural evolution and greater convergence towards common understandings, based on broadly accepted concepts of basic human rights. i'll push hard for cultural change, but i don't want to wipe anybody out.
unless they're nazis. nazis need to go. sorry.
don't misinterpret my respect for russia's place in history with some kind of romanticization of it. i mean, i grasp what exists in russia, politically. i think vlad's been miscast, and he's really a force of stability, but i know he's a rough, mean guy. part of building a democracy exists in people generating an interest in democratic governance; you can't gift russia with something it's never really wanted. russia's gotta figure that out. and, the thing is that russia's actually pretty good at figuring that out, it just does so in a less centralized, more anarchistic sort of way. that's the trick of russia - beneath the authoritarian veneer, it's truly largely a lawless wasteland. people truly govern themselves, without much need for participating in a system of representation. this is the irony of russia's stunted development, now and a hundred years ago - it can't grapple with representative democracy because it's still mired in direct, tribal democracy, arguably a purer and more kinetic form of democracy. you just stay away from those mob bosses in the limos that stay in the palaces.
and, i'm hard on the muslims, but, fuck. they're awful. they gotta get better.
and, the chinese scare the hell out of me, but it's something that's resolvable with the right policies. they're only aggressive because it seems logical to them to be aggressive, which was perhaps a failure in broadcasting an approach, from our perspective. we should have perhaps been more culturally aware of the perception of weakness in asian societies, and been less oblivious to how weak we've been perceived, for how long. projecting some respectable strength is long overdue and the proper way to build a respectful relationship with an asian power. it's just how it is.
these groupings and forces are real things, and i'm just pointing them out - critically, and with opinions, but not rooting for or in support of any particular faction, except the abstract and post-national faction of the forces of the left.